Disney Buys out Marvel

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Yesterday I caught wind that Disney has bought out Marvel Entertainment (ones behind superheros like Spiderman, X-men, Wolverine, Etc.) for 4 billion dollars. The deal adds thousands of characters to Disney's portfolio. Marvel share holders will get 30 cents and a Disney share for each Marvel share.The reason for the buyout is Disney is looking to appeal to 12-15 males in much the same way Hanna Montana appeals to 12-15 year old girl demographics. IMO I'm a bit lerry of the implications fearing that the great Marvel Characters will be changed to fit the family friendly theme of Disney.

Thought?

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I grew up with Marvel Comics and I was pretty surprised by this news. Marvel and Disney just don't seem like they should go in the same sentence, let alone the same company. Will be interesting to see what Disney does. They have a tricky tight rope to walk. If Marvel characters become even the slightest bit "family friendly" they could very well lose their existing fan base.

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I was just reading on msnbc that one of the primary reasons for Disney buying Marvel was their huge struggle over the past decade at attracting younger male audiences. Most of their shows attract females and their efforts (via marketing, tv shows and other tactics) to attract males have either went bust or backfired and attracted even more females. This, of course, poses a huge problem for Disney, as it limits its audience. They clearly lost their ability to market to males over the last decade, as they tried to attract more females and focused such things as the Disney Princesses (if you look in toy aisles, you will see that there are tons of Disney princess things for females, but virtually no Disney items for males), they cut corners on male-oriented items and as a result, they essentially gave up that market to competitors. One of the companies that has really benefited from this has been Marvel, which is very dominant in the toy market for boys. Disney is also getting killed in the tv market, with the Cartoon Network commanding a massive 70% share of the male audience.

Marvel essentially fit the answer Disney was looking for in its efforts to bring boys back into their portfolio, so the transaction made sense in that regard. That being said, Disney is buying Marvel for its properties and intangibles, which are its characters and popularity with males, so they are unlikely to impair that image in any way and from what I gather, Marvel will be left as a separate unit within Disney, much like Pixar and some of its other studios are.